Buchanan: US Failure to Police Mexican Border Killed GOP Majority

The Republican majority built under Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan began to “lose the country” when it failed to police the Mexican border two decades ago, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan says.

“This goes back a long way to the time I ran in 1991, '92, when there were 3 million illegals in the country and they were coming in at the rate of 5,000 in a weekend in San Diego, and I said, ‘you know, the Republican Party better get control of the borders here . . . or we're going to lose the country,’” Buchanan told John Bachman on America’s Forum on Newsmax TV.

“That in fact is happening, the demographic change has really destroyed the Nixon-Reagan New Majority," he said Tuesday.

Buchanan disagreed with conservatives such as George Will who have argued that Hispanic immigrants can eventually be persuaded to vote Republican once they are legally integrated into the nation.

“George is mistaken in this sense," he said. "Let's take the Hispanic-Americans, the largest minority in America . . . 17 percent of the population. They voted over 70 percent Democratic and two out of three believe . . . in more government programs rather than smaller government,” Buchanan says.

“They quite frankly are philosophically attuned to the Democratic Party. The ones who are coming in legal and illegal now are very, very poor, therefore they are by and large beneficiaries of a welfare state. Now, why should these Hispanic folks, once they get the vote, vote for a party which is going to cut taxes they don't pay but take away benefits they do receive?”

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Buchanan acknowledges that Hispanics are hard workers, but doesn’t think that changes their political inclinations.

“Well, there’s no doubt they're coming here to work. I mean they work very hard . . . and everywhere you go you see jobs that used to be held by white Americans and African-Americans are now held by Hispanics. They're very hard-working people, but all I'm saying is politically they identify with the Democratic Party."

He notes that the new demographics of the United States do not bode well for Republicans.

“Politically, Asian-Americans voted 70 percent or more for Obama; Hispanics, over 70 percent for Obama; and African-Americans, 93 to 95 percent for Obama. As these populations increase, unless you're dreaming, the great Republican majority that was built up under Nixon and Reagan, where we carried 49 states twice, is going to disappear.”

Policing the border and enforcing immigration laws are the only measures that will enable the GOP to survive, Buchanan says.

“A Republican solution to the problem is secure the border and punish businesses that hire illegal aliens, and don't reward folks with amnesty who have broken into the country. Enforce the laws of the United States."

Buchanan doubts that current Republican leaders have the courage to promote such a solution today, and says such lack of conviction will seal the party's decline.

“The problem with the Republican Party and the problem with the conservative movement is it's in a state of moral paralysis. It cannot move, it cannot act, it cannot decide, and as things drift, the party is moving closer and closer to the fall and it's now trying to work out some kind of compromise with the Democratic Party, which will drive it right to the wall after it makes its first surrender.”

The Republican majority built under Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan began to “lose the country” when it failed to police the Mexican border two decades ago, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan says.